Make the right decision, Peters urges Fonterra farmers
New Zealand First leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters is ratcheting up pressure on Fonterra farmers as they vote on divesting the co-operative’s consumer and related businesses.
Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell has told co-op employees that more work is needed to turn the business around.
“We are making good progress on our plan to turn our business around: we’re not there yet,” he said in an email to staff last week.
“Some tough calls are still needed to put us on the right path.”
Fonterra employees won’t be paid bonuses for the 2018-19 year. No salaried staff earning over $100,000 will get a pay rise in 2019-20.
A remuneration review will still occur for salaried employees earning under $100,000. Waged employees who are part of a collective agreement aren’t impacted.
Hurrell says this has been a tough call, but it’s also the right one.
“Together as a cooperative we must do what’s right, working together to reset our business and get us back to a position where we can be proud of our financial performance.”
He thanked staff for their hard work in helping lift performance and reset the business.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Todd McClay is encouraging farmers, growers, and foresters not to take unnecessary risks, asking that they heed weather warnings today.
With nearly two million underutilised dairy calves born annually and the beef price outlook strong, New Zealand’s opportunity to build a scalable dairy-beef system is now.
Graduates of a newly-updated Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) course are taking more value than ever from the programme, with some even walking away calling themselves the “farm CFO”.
Meet the Need, a farmer-led charity, says food insecurity in New Zealand is dire, with one in four children now living in a household experiencing food insecurity, according to Ministry of Health data.
Applications have now opened for the 2026 Meat Industry Association scholarships.
Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) says it is backing aspiring dairy farmers through a new initiative designed to make the first step to farm ownership or sharemilking easier.